The Land is Our History

Miranda Johnson’s book was published just as Indigenous people throughout Australia were participating in a series of dialogues that would culminate in the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’. This eloquent and moving document makes the demand for Indigenous Australians to have their own voice in the national parliament. Their modest plea was rejected by the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, out of hand, prompting some Indigenous leaders to argue that we have entered one of the bleakest chapters in our shared history. In times when politicians are so indifferent to Indigenous voices that they are routinely ignored, books such as this become crucial. Such books remind us that Indigenous peoples in settler states have never been submissive victims of colonisation. They are perennially outnumbered, have little by way of material resources and live with foundation myths that denounce their cultures as worthless. But, as Johnson reminds us, Indigenous activists always endure. Occasionally, they even win

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